The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Each day, the sun provides 10,000 times the amount of energy utilized by the human race. In a single day, it provides more energy than our current population would consume in 27 years. In North America alone, it is believed that close to two trillion dollars is spent annually on energy, much of which is designated towards non-renewable, carbon-based sources, such as oil, coal, and other fossil fuels. When energy consumption for the average U.S. household is approximately 65-80% thermal and approximately 20-35% electrical, it makes sense to derive a means of satisfying both of these requirements through renewable sources.
There have been many advances in the past few decades toward the capture of renewable energy resources, such as water turbines (which convert the kinetic energy of moving water into electricity), wind generators (which convert the energy of the wind into electrical energy), geothermal heating (which utilizes the stability of the subterraneous temperature to provide thermal energy), and solar cells (which allow the capture and conversion of solar energy into electrical energy).
An alternative type of renewable energy is a solar thermal heat exchanger, which utilizes the energy of sunlight to heat a liquid, thereby providing thermal energy for heating or cooling. In this type of energy harnessing, typically a flat plate is blackened on the front to improve absorption of solar radiation and is arranged with its blackened surface facing the sun and sloped at a suitable angle to optimize the energy collected. A series of tubes is secured to the panel, and water to be heated is circulated through these tubes to extract the heat received by the panel. The innovative thermal capture systems require that the circulated heated water be stored for further energy extraction. The warmed water from solar thermal heat exchangers is normally circulated through a separate tank so that the temperature may build up to a maximum value being a balance between the heat input and heat losses in the system. This water can then be used as feed water for heating non-heated water for domestic use through the use of in tank heat exchangers.
While the volumes of heated recirculation water varies with the size of the solar thermal heat exchangers mounted to a residential or commercial structure, a tank of sufficient size to store all of the systems liquid is required to be maintained on site. To maximize thermal energy capture, these liquid storage tanks are often located in basements of homes and businesses, particularly in the northern climates where placement of the storage tank in the exterior of the building structure may lead to tank failure and at best, loss of captured thermal energy, especially in the winter months. Similar but opposite considerations apply for the storage of cold liquids, refrigerants and the like in warmer climates, where the most suitable storage location for these tanks are also often in lower levels of the home or business, especially during the hotter months.
Often, large prefabricated storage tanks are difficult to maneuver and placement in lower levels and basements of homes and businesses are hampered by the fact that the average door widths range from 87 to 92 cm (34¼ to 36¼ inches), far smaller than the dimensions of the storage tanks. Moreover, given their bulk and weight, prefabricated storage tanks in capacities of hundreds of gallons to thousands of gallons are difficult to reposition once they have been previously established.